So today I was sitting in class thinking about the world population. Lately Ive been trying to be alone, trying to go places where I can just be by myself for a little bit. Thats why I went to the dirt road, a few days later I went to another secluded area near a highway, where I was interrupted by a passerby. Then Sunday I went to the top of a parking garage at night to watch people and cars below, where I was inturrupted by a police officer wondering what I was doing. So I was sitting in class today thinking that there is really no where I can be alone. There are 6.6 billion people on this planet, so I am bound to be inturrupted by one of them anywhere I go, it seems. Then I got to thinking about how big the number 6.6 billion really is. I mean, we all know that it is a pretty big number, but I dont think you realize how big it really is. So I put the number into seconds, to put it into perspective. One second is not a very long time, as we all know, but 6.6 billion seconds really ads up. So I crunched the numbers, and was astounded by what I found.
1 million seconds ago was 11.5 days ago, which would be September 19, not too long ago. I was surprised by how little time this was.
1 billion seconds ago was 31.7 years ago, roughly January 1977, this one shocked me!
But what was even more shocking was that 6.6 billion seconds ago was 209.25 years ago, roughly June 1799. June of 1799!!
I am only one second in 209 years!! One second in nearly three lifetimes! This is slightly belittling, but also very humbling.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Just Another Weekend
I know its probably kind of boring listening to what I do on weekends, but I kind of just want to write it down just to get it out, you know. So again, my weekend started on Thursday at the Neon Cactus. I went with four of my "bros" and we met up with two more when we got there. It was actually a pretty tame night, I didnt dance at all. Actually I got turned down and it kind of crushed my spirits. But they had a signing there, a girl from the tempe12 calendar, which I think is like college girls from the Big Ten. So me and my friends stood there admiring her for a bit, and one of them said that I should get my chest signed. I thought about it for a split second, and agreed. She was signing calendars, so I got one, stood in line for a few minutes, walked up to her and said,"Hi will you sign my chest," and proceeded to pull my shirt up. Confused, she gave me an, "Okay?" So she wrote, in permanant marker, that she loved me, some XOXOs, and signed her name. I talked to her a little, but sadly, I didnt get her number. But I didnt ask, so thats probably why.
So then we left pretty early, just me and Frazier. Frazier is a character, hes an alumni that is some kind of royalty in Spain or something, so he never works, he just flies around the world doing whatever he wants....or so he says. But hes been at our house for about 3 weeks or so. So we left the bar and headed over to Lauren and Erikas apartment. Lauren and Erika are well known amongst ATOs, they are some brothers' ex-girlfriends, but everyone in the house loves them. So they were having party that night, we decided to head over, and it was pretty lame. The girls were obliterated, and there were only three other people there besides the girls. After a few minutes of the girls dancing around, giving hugs, and being foolish, we decided to leave. We just went to McDonalds then called it a night.
Friday morning comes. I really didnt do much all day Friday, which would be my typical Friday. I played Xbox for several hours. Ive been playing this racing game called Forza, I really get into it! According to my stats, I have 15 hours of racing time already, but Im only 40% complete with the game. It feels good to accomplish something here at college. And then, of course, I went and worked out. Friday night, I went over to Stacees house to hang out. We played a few games of beer pong with her boyfriend and thier housemate, some really intense games! But, me and Stacee lost all three games. We also played a few games of air hockey, which were also intense. Me and Stacee invented an air hockey game where we dont use the paddle things, just our hands. That was a blast! Then we played around on the pogo stick, which I now realize is very dangerous.
Saturday was fun....and not so fun at the same time. We got our new pledges this weekend. Saturday was our pinning ceremony, which officially begins thier pledgeship. But before the ceremony, the brothers go around campus and pick up the pledges....creatively. Me and Adam decided to pick up his brother, who is pledging. So we called him at around 4:45pm and told him to meet us in front of his dorm at 5 with five sheets of paper, a pen, three socks, and a jar of peanut butter. We told him this to throw him off, we said there was going to be a scavenger hunt. So we picked him up, made him put a hat over his head so he couldnt see, and made him lay down in the backseat, basically so it doesnt look like we are kidnapping someone. We drove about 15 minutes out into the country, nothing but cornfields and empty roads around. We stopped on this dirt road and made him get out. With the hat still over his eyes, we made him believe there were other people with, telling "everyone" to be quiet and dont take thier masks off until we left. So me and Adam left, sped off, tires spinning, just left him there by himself, out in the middle of nowhere. And we left him with a sign that said "Be back at the house by 5:45." It was about 5:15 by this time.
But before you think Im a horrible person for this, we did pick him up, we didnt just leave him out there. We just drove down the road, stopped and waited about 10-15 minutes, and went back. He said that he was shocked when he realized he was alone. It was great.
Then we had a party after the ceremony at a brothers apartment. It was pretty fun, it was fun getting to know the new pledges, fun talking to some girls, did a little dancing, but not fun at the end of the night. I had a few beers, some Killians Irish Red, pretty good stuff. But toward the end of the night a girl asked if I wanted to take a shot of vodka with her, I hesitated, but agreed. Bad choice. First of all, I hate hard alcohol, it tastes disgusting, and it never agrees with me. Instantly after the shot, I had to talk myself out of throwing up for about ten minutes. Then on the ride home, it hit me again. We dropped some girls off, and I got out also, walked to the bushes, and chucked all over. I hate throwing up, that shot put me over the top. Later that night, I threw up again, walking down the hallway to get some water, it just snuck up with no warning, and I threw up in my mouth. So I ran to the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet. Never again. I hate vodka forever, I cant believe one shot did that to me.
Today, I just hung out with Stacee most of the day. We went to lunch, McAlisters, Ive never been there before, but it was pretty good. Then we went shopping....well, she went shopping and I was dragged along. I hate shopping, but I put up with it today. Then I went to church, which was great and thought provoking as usual. Later on I went to the art building to do some work for my ceramics class. Came back from that, wrote a paper in spanish, and thats that. End. Of. Weekend.
So then we left pretty early, just me and Frazier. Frazier is a character, hes an alumni that is some kind of royalty in Spain or something, so he never works, he just flies around the world doing whatever he wants....or so he says. But hes been at our house for about 3 weeks or so. So we left the bar and headed over to Lauren and Erikas apartment. Lauren and Erika are well known amongst ATOs, they are some brothers' ex-girlfriends, but everyone in the house loves them. So they were having party that night, we decided to head over, and it was pretty lame. The girls were obliterated, and there were only three other people there besides the girls. After a few minutes of the girls dancing around, giving hugs, and being foolish, we decided to leave. We just went to McDonalds then called it a night.
Friday morning comes. I really didnt do much all day Friday, which would be my typical Friday. I played Xbox for several hours. Ive been playing this racing game called Forza, I really get into it! According to my stats, I have 15 hours of racing time already, but Im only 40% complete with the game. It feels good to accomplish something here at college. And then, of course, I went and worked out. Friday night, I went over to Stacees house to hang out. We played a few games of beer pong with her boyfriend and thier housemate, some really intense games! But, me and Stacee lost all three games. We also played a few games of air hockey, which were also intense. Me and Stacee invented an air hockey game where we dont use the paddle things, just our hands. That was a blast! Then we played around on the pogo stick, which I now realize is very dangerous.
Saturday was fun....and not so fun at the same time. We got our new pledges this weekend. Saturday was our pinning ceremony, which officially begins thier pledgeship. But before the ceremony, the brothers go around campus and pick up the pledges....creatively. Me and Adam decided to pick up his brother, who is pledging. So we called him at around 4:45pm and told him to meet us in front of his dorm at 5 with five sheets of paper, a pen, three socks, and a jar of peanut butter. We told him this to throw him off, we said there was going to be a scavenger hunt. So we picked him up, made him put a hat over his head so he couldnt see, and made him lay down in the backseat, basically so it doesnt look like we are kidnapping someone. We drove about 15 minutes out into the country, nothing but cornfields and empty roads around. We stopped on this dirt road and made him get out. With the hat still over his eyes, we made him believe there were other people with, telling "everyone" to be quiet and dont take thier masks off until we left. So me and Adam left, sped off, tires spinning, just left him there by himself, out in the middle of nowhere. And we left him with a sign that said "Be back at the house by 5:45." It was about 5:15 by this time.
But before you think Im a horrible person for this, we did pick him up, we didnt just leave him out there. We just drove down the road, stopped and waited about 10-15 minutes, and went back. He said that he was shocked when he realized he was alone. It was great.
Then we had a party after the ceremony at a brothers apartment. It was pretty fun, it was fun getting to know the new pledges, fun talking to some girls, did a little dancing, but not fun at the end of the night. I had a few beers, some Killians Irish Red, pretty good stuff. But toward the end of the night a girl asked if I wanted to take a shot of vodka with her, I hesitated, but agreed. Bad choice. First of all, I hate hard alcohol, it tastes disgusting, and it never agrees with me. Instantly after the shot, I had to talk myself out of throwing up for about ten minutes. Then on the ride home, it hit me again. We dropped some girls off, and I got out also, walked to the bushes, and chucked all over. I hate throwing up, that shot put me over the top. Later that night, I threw up again, walking down the hallway to get some water, it just snuck up with no warning, and I threw up in my mouth. So I ran to the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet. Never again. I hate vodka forever, I cant believe one shot did that to me.
Today, I just hung out with Stacee most of the day. We went to lunch, McAlisters, Ive never been there before, but it was pretty good. Then we went shopping....well, she went shopping and I was dragged along. I hate shopping, but I put up with it today. Then I went to church, which was great and thought provoking as usual. Later on I went to the art building to do some work for my ceramics class. Came back from that, wrote a paper in spanish, and thats that. End. Of. Weekend.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Laying Under the Stars
Well, tonight I did a little something out of the ordinary. I was rushing around, doing my daily stuff like a walmart run, fixing a flat tire on my car, getting art supplies, you know, just the usual running around. It was about 9 o' clock at night, and I had decided on my way back from Walmart that I needed a break. I needed a break from constantly doing something, I needed a break from seeing people, being social. I needed to be alone for a while. So, I started driving. I wasnt really sure where I was going, actually I got lost pretty quickly, I just found some country roads and went from there. I figured if I got too lost, I would be able to just backtrack to find my way home. So I turned my music off, rolled down all of the windows, opened the moonroof, drove really slow, like 30 mph, and just took it in. Just enjoyed the air swirling around the interior of my car, seemingly smacking me in the head in all directions. I drove until I found no more civilization.
Then I decided that I needed to get out of the car. So I drove until I saw no more cars. I eventually hit a dirt road. I wandered down the road, not too far though, I didnt want to get my car filthy dirty since I just washed it a couple of days ago. Then I stopped. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out of my car, walked down the road a little ways, and just layed there in the middle of this dirt road. It was wonderful! It was great to just get away for a while. It seemed like I was a million miles from campus, when in reality, I was only about 10 miles away. I didnt really think of too much, just how great it felt to feel the dirt on my back and head, and feel the cool air swirl around me, and hear all of the crickets and insects around me. I mostly just thought about how bad it would suck if I got hit by a car, but that fear dimished quickly since I hadnt seen a car for miles. One thought that popped into my head while laying there was what it must have been like for people hundreds of years ago, wondering if someone was doing the exact same thing in the exact same spot from where I was two or three hundreds years ago. I was trying to imagine what it must have looked like. The powerlines wouldnt have been there. The corn wouldnt have been as tall, if there at all. The road may not have existed. No airplanes in the sky, no satellites to look for. But the sky would have probably looked amazing. No light pollution, just billions of twinkles lighting up the night sky.
I didnt stay very long though, maybe 15-20 minutes. But that was all I needed. I felt refreshed after that. And it was a good reflection time. I felt connected with God in that moment, I felt like He was there with me, enjoying the sights and sounds and feelings along with me.
Then I decided that I needed to get out of the car. So I drove until I saw no more cars. I eventually hit a dirt road. I wandered down the road, not too far though, I didnt want to get my car filthy dirty since I just washed it a couple of days ago. Then I stopped. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out of my car, walked down the road a little ways, and just layed there in the middle of this dirt road. It was wonderful! It was great to just get away for a while. It seemed like I was a million miles from campus, when in reality, I was only about 10 miles away. I didnt really think of too much, just how great it felt to feel the dirt on my back and head, and feel the cool air swirl around me, and hear all of the crickets and insects around me. I mostly just thought about how bad it would suck if I got hit by a car, but that fear dimished quickly since I hadnt seen a car for miles. One thought that popped into my head while laying there was what it must have been like for people hundreds of years ago, wondering if someone was doing the exact same thing in the exact same spot from where I was two or three hundreds years ago. I was trying to imagine what it must have looked like. The powerlines wouldnt have been there. The corn wouldnt have been as tall, if there at all. The road may not have existed. No airplanes in the sky, no satellites to look for. But the sky would have probably looked amazing. No light pollution, just billions of twinkles lighting up the night sky.
I didnt stay very long though, maybe 15-20 minutes. But that was all I needed. I felt refreshed after that. And it was a good reflection time. I felt connected with God in that moment, I felt like He was there with me, enjoying the sights and sounds and feelings along with me.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Through Painted Deserts
So, I finally finished reading the book Through Painted Deserts by Don Miller. It only took me like 5 weeks to read it! I was a little confused about the book at first, I thought it was going to be a little more spiritual just like Blue Like Jazz, but it was basically just a story about him travelling around the US with his friend Paul in a VW van. But I thought the book was great! Very interesting. There are points in the book that really agree with my simplicity concept. He said that for a few weeks he lived out in the woods with a few other guys, and it was one of the best times of his life. I 100% agree that the simpler things are, when its nothing but you and Gods beautiful painting called the Earth, when you are just out there building relationships, the happier you will be, life will seem like it has a point. I liked this book because I could really relate to thier situation. I believe Don was 21 when these occurances took place. I could definately see myself going on a trip like this, if it werent for this stupid, moneyhungry, college thing. Waste of time, waste of money, so far.
Since I have come back to school, I have gotten everything I have needed, and mostly everything I wanted. I can buy gas for my car now, so I drive a lot. I can buy food from any restaraunt, so I eat out quite a bit. I can afford to go to the bars with my friends every weekend, so I do that. And you know what, its convenient and fun. But Im really not as appreciative as I was this summer when I could afford nothing. I feel like Im taking everything for granted now. I miss the simple life.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Power of a Smile
I love it when people smile. I think that there is so much power in just a simple smile. I think that people even become more attractive when they smile, its a lot better than looking angry or sad. If you know me, you know that I love to smile and laugh and try to make others laugh and smile. I am somewhat witty, I like to crack stupid jokes and say things that I think are funny, but sometimes others dont get my humor. I love to see people smile, but not pitty smiles, or fake smiles. I like to see real, genuine, nonthreatening, loving smiles, teeth or no teeth, a smile is a smile.
The other day I was walking to class, it was just a normal, average day. Usually when I walk to class, I like to look at people, I look at everyone! Im a huge fan of people watching. And normally when I pass someone and make eye contact with them, they quickly look away to lose eye contact. Im not really sure why they do this. And sometimes when they look at me and keep eye contact for a second or two, I will shoot them a smile, guy or girl (but especially for the ladies, wink wink). But on this day, I noticed a very beautiful girl coming my way, and of course this put me in panic mode when she looked at me. Then she shot me a smile before I could. What a great feeling! That one smile from this particular girl just made the rest of my day. That is what I mean about smiles being powerful. Just a simple smile could make someones day. Just think, if you smiled at each person you passed, think of the number of people you are impacting!
Can you guys think of any other examples of what Im talking about? What are some other ways a smile could be powerful?
The other day I was walking to class, it was just a normal, average day. Usually when I walk to class, I like to look at people, I look at everyone! Im a huge fan of people watching. And normally when I pass someone and make eye contact with them, they quickly look away to lose eye contact. Im not really sure why they do this. And sometimes when they look at me and keep eye contact for a second or two, I will shoot them a smile, guy or girl (but especially for the ladies, wink wink). But on this day, I noticed a very beautiful girl coming my way, and of course this put me in panic mode when she looked at me. Then she shot me a smile before I could. What a great feeling! That one smile from this particular girl just made the rest of my day. That is what I mean about smiles being powerful. Just a simple smile could make someones day. Just think, if you smiled at each person you passed, think of the number of people you are impacting!
Can you guys think of any other examples of what Im talking about? What are some other ways a smile could be powerful?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Rest of the Weekend
Woke up at about 11am, I ended up staying awake until like 3am last night. I got so much sleep during the day, I wasnt really tired last night. I sat around during the first half of the day, just watched TV, got on the internet for while, just killed time. Then I left to go buy some new gym shorts. I lost my good ones somewhere so Ive been working out in my pajama shorts that I made. I get some looks in the wieght room. After I bought my shorts, I went to the ATM, went to CVS to buy some car cleaning products, then went to the car wash. It was time for my car to be totally cleaned. Got it vacuumed, armoralled, washed, the works. Came back to the house, only to leave again to work out. It was just a light workout, mostly just to do something because I was bored. I did 100 pushups, 20 pullups, and biked for 30 minutes. Came back, showered, then had to go to a cookout our fraternity had with one of the sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta....otherwise known as Thetas. I know several girls in that sorority, so it wasnt too awkward for me. I hung out with Meghan Phillips most of the time, I went to high school with her, we were the set of twins in our class. She gave me and AJ a tour of the house, its really not as nice as I thought it would be, thier rooms are really small and all look the same. But they have a courtyard in the center of the house, so that more than makes up for it. We also watched the Colts game while we were there, it was very exciting, yet disappointing. I met a couple more girls while there, it was just some typical small talk.
Then me and Cam left for church just before 8pm. The church I attend here at Purdue is called Purdue Christian Campus House, also known as Campus House Church, http://www.pcch.org/. This place is great, it reminds me a lot of Horizon, my church from home. They believe mostly what we believe at Horizon. And they have a great band too, worship is amazing. There are four different service times on Sundays: 9am, 11am, 6pm, and 8pm. I usually attend the 6 or 8 oclock services, mainly because I cant get up early enough for the morning ones. Tonight we talked about miricles. We are doing a series on who Jesus is for the next few weeks. This place really bring me back to seeing the big picture every week. I always get so caught up in everything here at school, Im always busy doing something, but its just me and Jesus on sundays. Unfortunately, it doesnt really stay that way the rest of the week. But it was a pretty good service tonight, as it usually is. And currently, I should be studying, but I dont really feel like it right now, maybe later. And Im watching Family Guy, so I have to wait till thats over.
So thats what happens for me here at Purdue. Just to let you in on what I do.
Then me and Cam left for church just before 8pm. The church I attend here at Purdue is called Purdue Christian Campus House, also known as Campus House Church, http://www.pcch.org/. This place is great, it reminds me a lot of Horizon, my church from home. They believe mostly what we believe at Horizon. And they have a great band too, worship is amazing. There are four different service times on Sundays: 9am, 11am, 6pm, and 8pm. I usually attend the 6 or 8 oclock services, mainly because I cant get up early enough for the morning ones. Tonight we talked about miricles. We are doing a series on who Jesus is for the next few weeks. This place really bring me back to seeing the big picture every week. I always get so caught up in everything here at school, Im always busy doing something, but its just me and Jesus on sundays. Unfortunately, it doesnt really stay that way the rest of the week. But it was a pretty good service tonight, as it usually is. And currently, I should be studying, but I dont really feel like it right now, maybe later. And Im watching Family Guy, so I have to wait till thats over.
So thats what happens for me here at Purdue. Just to let you in on what I do.
Weekends at the Due
I just realized that its been a while since Ive put anything on my blog! The days are going by so quickly here at school. But never fear loyal followers, Ben is back with some stories! This weekend was kind of a typicle weekend for me. Jam packed with good times, bad times, random happenings, and little sleep.
My weekend started Thursday night, since I dont have class on Fridays. On Thursday nights, a group of my fraternity brothers and I like to go to the Neon Cactus, a HUGE bar off campus. Thursday nights at the Cactus are the thing to do, EVERYONE goes. Its cheap, five dollar cover charge with 25 cent beers. Plus, dancing! There is a ginormic dance floor in the center of the place, and it is always packed and sweaty and loud, and ultimately exhausting. So we got there and just hung out at a table and talked about nothing for a little while, then I got a call from Stacee, one of my really good friends, saying that her big sister was in town and they want to come over to the Cactus. Well, first of all, backstory on Stacee. She and I have known each other since like 5th grade, she lived in the next town over, Plymouth. I always had a huge crush on her all throughout elem, middle, and high school. We eventually dated in high school, on and off, for maybe a year or so. But now we are just really good friends. And her family is like my second family. But anyways, her 29 yr old sister, Holly, came up for the weekend from Virginia to hang out and also go to the football game. But we had a blast at the Cactus thursday. It was pretty much me dancing with these two beautiful blonde girls all night, I was the envy of the place, cant get any better than that. We eventually split, I went back to my house with my brothers, my uber-drunk friend unwillingly bought us pizza, and I eventually made it to bed at about 3am.
Woke up at noon on Friday. Thats the great thing about Fridays for me, I can sleep all day if I like. I didnt really do much all day Friday, played Xbox for a while, went to workout, just relaxed. Then Friday night rolls around. This was a very frustrating Friday night. My fraternity cohosted a party with Alpha Kappa Lambda, another frat, at their house. I went with AJ, we were there for about 15 min, it was lame, and we werent in the mood to party or be social at all for that matter. So we decided to go buy some cigars and smoke them. We went to a gas station, were standing in line to pay, and some drunk guy wanted to fight us for no reason. Seriously, no reasonat all, we said nothing to him, he just walked up to us and said, "Did I stutter? Now get the f*** outta my way!" I kind of just looked at him with a "wait, are you serious" look on my face. We just ignored him and left. We went back to the house, me and AJ and Nathan smoked on the roof and told stories. Nathan tells amazing stories. Him and a friend tried driving to the east coast on mopeds this summer......they made it to Ohio, his friend forgot a sleeping bag and got sick one night. While up on the roof, we saw three brothers walking back from the party, one of which was less walking and more leaning on the other two to stay up. All the while being followed closely by a police car. I thought for sure they were gonna get busted, but they made it into the house alright.
So I went downstairs to talk to the guys that came in, just wanting to see some drunken happenings. I was talking to the one that couldnt walk, he is one of the newer guys in the house. We were just having a good time, laughing and stuff, then he breaks out into tears. At first I thought it was pretty funny, but then realize that something was really wrong. He kept telling me that he needed to walk back to his apartment (2 miles away), I said that theres no way Im letting him, saying that he would definately get arrested, but he said that he wanted to get arrested. He was being very self destructive, he wanted to go back to his place and drink more, to get his mind off something. He wouldnt tell us what was wrong though. So for 2 hours I was keeping an eye on him, making sure he wouldnt leave, eventually wrestling him to the ground a couple of times to get him to stay. He was still crying the whole time. We eventually drove him back to his place, and had a little talk with him. Apparently, the girl he had been dating left the party with another guy and he was crushed. We tried comforting him, but he will obviously still be crushed for few days. When we left, we peered into his window for a few minutes to see if he went for the alcohol again. He didnt. I eventually got to bed at 4am.
So then 7am quickly rolls around. Time for breakfast club! Breakfast club is when you dress up in a costume and go to the bars before the football game. This was my first time going to breakfast club. I dressed up in my Kmart attire which I kept from when I worked there in high school. The crew I went with included Stacee, Holly, and Adam, my roomate. Adam was dressed as a pimp, Stacee and Holly were the Doublemint twins. We make it to the first bar at about 8:30am, Brothers Bar. It was pretty dead there, we each had a drink then went to the next bar, WhereElse. This place was happenin! Lots of people, dance floor, cheap screwdrivers. I had two screwdrivers while I was there. It was, again, a blast dancing with Stacee and Holly, and me and Adam were once again the envy of the bar. We left at about 10am, were giving free doublemint gum to random people on the way back, eventaully made it back to my room, then the girls left. I decided to make a third screwdriver. Now, Im a small guy, I hadnt eaten anything that morning, and the screwdrivers at WhereElse were almost double, each. On top of that, I got barely any sleep the night before. Needless to say, I closed my eyes at about 11am.......and missed the football game. I woke up at 3pm, not feeling well. Very dizzy. I spent the rest of the day laying around, trying to recover.
And on top of all this, my roomates ex-girlfriend is up for the weekend. Im not fond of her, she makes my skin crawl. I feel like I have to clean everything she touches. Im afraid to leave them alone in my room for fear that I will have to burn my couch after what they do. So, Im really not happy about this, and they obviously know that. Once again, Im not one to sugarcoat my thoughts.
Alright, its after 2am now, time to finish the day. Sunday....studying, I have an exam Monday. And church, woot! I love my church down here. kbye.
My weekend started Thursday night, since I dont have class on Fridays. On Thursday nights, a group of my fraternity brothers and I like to go to the Neon Cactus, a HUGE bar off campus. Thursday nights at the Cactus are the thing to do, EVERYONE goes. Its cheap, five dollar cover charge with 25 cent beers. Plus, dancing! There is a ginormic dance floor in the center of the place, and it is always packed and sweaty and loud, and ultimately exhausting. So we got there and just hung out at a table and talked about nothing for a little while, then I got a call from Stacee, one of my really good friends, saying that her big sister was in town and they want to come over to the Cactus. Well, first of all, backstory on Stacee. She and I have known each other since like 5th grade, she lived in the next town over, Plymouth. I always had a huge crush on her all throughout elem, middle, and high school. We eventually dated in high school, on and off, for maybe a year or so. But now we are just really good friends. And her family is like my second family. But anyways, her 29 yr old sister, Holly, came up for the weekend from Virginia to hang out and also go to the football game. But we had a blast at the Cactus thursday. It was pretty much me dancing with these two beautiful blonde girls all night, I was the envy of the place, cant get any better than that. We eventually split, I went back to my house with my brothers, my uber-drunk friend unwillingly bought us pizza, and I eventually made it to bed at about 3am.
Woke up at noon on Friday. Thats the great thing about Fridays for me, I can sleep all day if I like. I didnt really do much all day Friday, played Xbox for a while, went to workout, just relaxed. Then Friday night rolls around. This was a very frustrating Friday night. My fraternity cohosted a party with Alpha Kappa Lambda, another frat, at their house. I went with AJ, we were there for about 15 min, it was lame, and we werent in the mood to party or be social at all for that matter. So we decided to go buy some cigars and smoke them. We went to a gas station, were standing in line to pay, and some drunk guy wanted to fight us for no reason. Seriously, no reasonat all, we said nothing to him, he just walked up to us and said, "Did I stutter? Now get the f*** outta my way!" I kind of just looked at him with a "wait, are you serious" look on my face. We just ignored him and left. We went back to the house, me and AJ and Nathan smoked on the roof and told stories. Nathan tells amazing stories. Him and a friend tried driving to the east coast on mopeds this summer......they made it to Ohio, his friend forgot a sleeping bag and got sick one night. While up on the roof, we saw three brothers walking back from the party, one of which was less walking and more leaning on the other two to stay up. All the while being followed closely by a police car. I thought for sure they were gonna get busted, but they made it into the house alright.
So I went downstairs to talk to the guys that came in, just wanting to see some drunken happenings. I was talking to the one that couldnt walk, he is one of the newer guys in the house. We were just having a good time, laughing and stuff, then he breaks out into tears. At first I thought it was pretty funny, but then realize that something was really wrong. He kept telling me that he needed to walk back to his apartment (2 miles away), I said that theres no way Im letting him, saying that he would definately get arrested, but he said that he wanted to get arrested. He was being very self destructive, he wanted to go back to his place and drink more, to get his mind off something. He wouldnt tell us what was wrong though. So for 2 hours I was keeping an eye on him, making sure he wouldnt leave, eventually wrestling him to the ground a couple of times to get him to stay. He was still crying the whole time. We eventually drove him back to his place, and had a little talk with him. Apparently, the girl he had been dating left the party with another guy and he was crushed. We tried comforting him, but he will obviously still be crushed for few days. When we left, we peered into his window for a few minutes to see if he went for the alcohol again. He didnt. I eventually got to bed at 4am.
So then 7am quickly rolls around. Time for breakfast club! Breakfast club is when you dress up in a costume and go to the bars before the football game. This was my first time going to breakfast club. I dressed up in my Kmart attire which I kept from when I worked there in high school. The crew I went with included Stacee, Holly, and Adam, my roomate. Adam was dressed as a pimp, Stacee and Holly were the Doublemint twins. We make it to the first bar at about 8:30am, Brothers Bar. It was pretty dead there, we each had a drink then went to the next bar, WhereElse. This place was happenin! Lots of people, dance floor, cheap screwdrivers. I had two screwdrivers while I was there. It was, again, a blast dancing with Stacee and Holly, and me and Adam were once again the envy of the bar. We left at about 10am, were giving free doublemint gum to random people on the way back, eventaully made it back to my room, then the girls left. I decided to make a third screwdriver. Now, Im a small guy, I hadnt eaten anything that morning, and the screwdrivers at WhereElse were almost double, each. On top of that, I got barely any sleep the night before. Needless to say, I closed my eyes at about 11am.......and missed the football game. I woke up at 3pm, not feeling well. Very dizzy. I spent the rest of the day laying around, trying to recover.
And on top of all this, my roomates ex-girlfriend is up for the weekend. Im not fond of her, she makes my skin crawl. I feel like I have to clean everything she touches. Im afraid to leave them alone in my room for fear that I will have to burn my couch after what they do. So, Im really not happy about this, and they obviously know that. Once again, Im not one to sugarcoat my thoughts.
Alright, its after 2am now, time to finish the day. Sunday....studying, I have an exam Monday. And church, woot! I love my church down here. kbye.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Mohawk No More
Its true, tonight I shaved the mohawk off, my head is now buzzed. I was going to wait until the weekend to do it, but I am a very impatient person, so I spontaneously did it tonight. Im already wishing I didnt do it though. I miss the mohawk already and its only been like a half hour. Oh well, itll grow back. I just have to wait a little while. One thing I noticed was how thin my hair is now. Im not looking forward to being bald. One of my fears, losing my hair. Im off to bed.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Brokenhearted for No Reason
Im feeling a little melancholy tonight. I was having a pretty decent day, pretty average day in terms of emotion up until a couple hours ago.
There is a girl in one of my classes who just takes my breath away when I see her. This doesnt happen to me too often. I see pretty girls every day here at Purdue, pretty girls who, for the most part, know that they are pretty.....which in part makes them ugly to me. Pretty girls who are pretty because they wear just the right amount of makeup, dye thier hair just the right color, and thier skirt is just short enough. But this girl in my class has a humble, natural beauty to her. And most of the time, I feel like I cant take my eyes off her, and I catch myself glancing over at her about 85 times during class period, which Im sure everyone has noticed. She is absolutely gorgeous, shes got beautiful wavey brown hair, big brown eyes, slender waist with long legs, and the perfect smile. She gives me a feeling that I havent felt since high school when I would see my crush that I never acted on. I guess you could say I have a crush on her. I havent really had a crush in a long time. Its nice to feel these feelings again. Ive talked to her a couple of times, she is usually sitting on the other side of the room with her back to me, so every once in a while I look for a reason to go over there and small talk. This class isnt like the normal classroom setting, its an art class where we are free to wander, where we work on our own during the 3 hour class period.
But, alas, she has a boyfriend. She is not available. I will never be with her, at least not anytime in the near future. My heart sank when I found this out. The feeling is similar to that of having a pet die or something. Maybe that is a little blown out of proportion, but I think you get my drift. So, tonight, I feel a little melancholy.
There is a girl in one of my classes who just takes my breath away when I see her. This doesnt happen to me too often. I see pretty girls every day here at Purdue, pretty girls who, for the most part, know that they are pretty.....which in part makes them ugly to me. Pretty girls who are pretty because they wear just the right amount of makeup, dye thier hair just the right color, and thier skirt is just short enough. But this girl in my class has a humble, natural beauty to her. And most of the time, I feel like I cant take my eyes off her, and I catch myself glancing over at her about 85 times during class period, which Im sure everyone has noticed. She is absolutely gorgeous, shes got beautiful wavey brown hair, big brown eyes, slender waist with long legs, and the perfect smile. She gives me a feeling that I havent felt since high school when I would see my crush that I never acted on. I guess you could say I have a crush on her. I havent really had a crush in a long time. Its nice to feel these feelings again. Ive talked to her a couple of times, she is usually sitting on the other side of the room with her back to me, so every once in a while I look for a reason to go over there and small talk. This class isnt like the normal classroom setting, its an art class where we are free to wander, where we work on our own during the 3 hour class period.
But, alas, she has a boyfriend. She is not available. I will never be with her, at least not anytime in the near future. My heart sank when I found this out. The feeling is similar to that of having a pet die or something. Maybe that is a little blown out of proportion, but I think you get my drift. So, tonight, I feel a little melancholy.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday Night Happenings
Tonight, again, I went to Greek IV. I touched up on what it was two posts ago. Again, it is like a church service for greeks on campus. But tonight was a little different for me. I wasnt just a spectator tonight, I was actually part of the band! It was great!
Ever since I have become greek, I have been going to Greek IV off and on.....more off than on though. There are a few things that I really dont enjoy about this service. Im not just being pesimistic here, I mean, I think that its great that a group of greeks are getting together every week to worship our Lord. But, I feel like there are some holes that need to be filled. First of all, I love worship. I love singing and closing my eyes and feeling the words and music and giving this beauty back to God. But at Greek IV, worship is awkward. It seems like the band doesnt practice together, they arent sure when to come in, get the words wrong often......its awkward for all of us. Secondly, something that really really bugs me, it seems that the people that come, and who run it, are there for the wrong reasons. I feel like some of the people are really fake, just putting on thier Christian face. When they talk to you it seems that they could really care less about you, they just want to show you how good of a Christian they are by coming to church. Thirdly, something that really really REALLY bugs me.......they shift thier attention away from God. They are more concerned with numbers. During discussion, it seems that they would rather discuss how to talk to our greek brothers or sisters about Christianity, and how to get them to come to Greek IV more than they discuss God! Church service isnt suppose to be about numbers, its about giving and worshipping our Lord! And then, I sometimes get the feeling it is more of a therapy session than a church service, we talk about how we can improve ourselves through Christ. I mean, everyone wants to change, and change for the better, but shouldnt we focus more on how to improve the world, improve Gods kingdom?
So last week, after the service, I walked up to the stage and asked them if they needed any help with the band. I told them that I play guitar and can sing, they said that they actually needed a couple of new guitarrists, so I said I would be there early next week with a guitar and warm up with them. Turns out that this week they were crazy short on people.....there were two other guys and me in the band. So I warmed up with them about a half hour before service, and Andy asked if I felt comfortable playing tonight, of course I said yes, and that was that. It was kind of tough though since I had never played the songs before and had about a half hour to learn three songs, but I managed.
Im going to play it low key for a few weeks, but I think that I would be able to change a few things, at least, thats what Im hoping. If you have ever met me, I am pretty blunt about my concerns (Todds driving haha), so I dont think that I should have a problem expressing my concerns to the people that run Greek IV. I just hope Im doing the right thing here. And hopefully they are open to my suggestions and dont get angry. Plus I have a little bit of experience with worship bands, so maybe I could get the band organized and we could rock out in style. I hope Im not in over my head. But I guess its really not up to me.....
Ever since I have become greek, I have been going to Greek IV off and on.....more off than on though. There are a few things that I really dont enjoy about this service. Im not just being pesimistic here, I mean, I think that its great that a group of greeks are getting together every week to worship our Lord. But, I feel like there are some holes that need to be filled. First of all, I love worship. I love singing and closing my eyes and feeling the words and music and giving this beauty back to God. But at Greek IV, worship is awkward. It seems like the band doesnt practice together, they arent sure when to come in, get the words wrong often......its awkward for all of us. Secondly, something that really really bugs me, it seems that the people that come, and who run it, are there for the wrong reasons. I feel like some of the people are really fake, just putting on thier Christian face. When they talk to you it seems that they could really care less about you, they just want to show you how good of a Christian they are by coming to church. Thirdly, something that really really REALLY bugs me.......they shift thier attention away from God. They are more concerned with numbers. During discussion, it seems that they would rather discuss how to talk to our greek brothers or sisters about Christianity, and how to get them to come to Greek IV more than they discuss God! Church service isnt suppose to be about numbers, its about giving and worshipping our Lord! And then, I sometimes get the feeling it is more of a therapy session than a church service, we talk about how we can improve ourselves through Christ. I mean, everyone wants to change, and change for the better, but shouldnt we focus more on how to improve the world, improve Gods kingdom?
So last week, after the service, I walked up to the stage and asked them if they needed any help with the band. I told them that I play guitar and can sing, they said that they actually needed a couple of new guitarrists, so I said I would be there early next week with a guitar and warm up with them. Turns out that this week they were crazy short on people.....there were two other guys and me in the band. So I warmed up with them about a half hour before service, and Andy asked if I felt comfortable playing tonight, of course I said yes, and that was that. It was kind of tough though since I had never played the songs before and had about a half hour to learn three songs, but I managed.
Im going to play it low key for a few weeks, but I think that I would be able to change a few things, at least, thats what Im hoping. If you have ever met me, I am pretty blunt about my concerns (Todds driving haha), so I dont think that I should have a problem expressing my concerns to the people that run Greek IV. I just hope Im doing the right thing here. And hopefully they are open to my suggestions and dont get angry. Plus I have a little bit of experience with worship bands, so maybe I could get the band organized and we could rock out in style. I hope Im not in over my head. But I guess its really not up to me.....
To end, this has absolutely nothing to do with what I was talking about, but Jane sent me a picture that she had taken that was in reference to a Renoir painting. I saved it and played with it in Photoshop for a while to try to make it look like an actual painting that looks like it couldve been done by Renoir, and this is what I came up with. Im pretty proud of it.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
More Art Stuff
Well, Ive decided to post some more artwork that I have done in the past couple of years, most of which were done here at Purdue. These are actually some of my favorites that are included in my portfolio....the same portfilio that didn't get me into the Industrial Design program. I apologize again for slacking on the blog too, Ive been busy here at school, mostly socially, but when I do get free time I would rather read or play guitar or something. But Ill try to get back into the swing of things on the blog. So here we go, artwork!! Lets get excited!!
The picture of the girl is one I did back in high school. She was a girl that I liked at the time (then later on dated), but I never gave it to her....and Im actually glad I didnt, because I would no longer have it. The pictures of the cars were done my freshman year of college. I used to watch Overhaulin' a lot and watching Chip Foose create these drawings for show really inspired me, so I tried it out myself using pen and some acrylic paint laying around. They could be better, this was before I had any formal training on shadow and reflections and all that jazz. (Oh, and I believe that if you click on the pic, it will enlarge it)
This was one of my favorite classes that I have taken in college, Intro to Drawing. We used nothing but graphite and charcoal. I love making charcoal drawings. In the first drawing, we had to draw something with texture, so I crumpled up a picture of Jesus, ripped the edges, flattened it back out, and drew what I saw. The next two were interesting to do, we had to cover the whole sheet of paper in charcoal, make it completely black, then use an eraser to make the highlights. I think that it is actually easier than drawing with charcoal. The middle picture is my face. We used a photocopy machine, put our faces up to it, printed, then recreated our print. The third is a vase on a vase stand. (not sure why this is underlined)
These pictures are from the very first art class I took in college. Intro to Design I think? It was fun to create these random pictures.
This is a fruit holder that I had to design and make in one of my ID classes. This was such a pain-in-the-butt project. It was called the Joinery project, and we had to make 3 or more equal pieces that connect together, without glue, to make a fruit holder. It was tough just to come up with an idea, let alone make it. I basically accidentally stumbled upon this design, just started putting pieces together and this is what I got.
This is a stool. Its made out of sheet metal and steel rods. Very sharp sheet metal. I cut myself several times making this one. This stool also took me forever to design, I probably drew a hundred different designs before I finished with this one. I was trying to make the whole thing out of one piece of sheet metal, and the design could be done that way, but my piece of sheet metal was about 2 inches too narrow.
Ok, you could call me a cheater for these drawings. I was looking at other peoples sketches when I drew these. I was just trying to get an idea of using different techniques of sketching, trying to figure out how they do it. So they arent really originals. But they look so good!!
These are some sketches for the Opus Design Competition. We had to come up with an inovative design for sunglasses. But we couldnt just design a pair of sunglasses, they had to have other functions as well. Retarded.....I know. Why cant they just serve one function......to keep the sun out of my freakin eyes. I ended up designing a pair that had little wipers on them in case it rained or someone spit on you or something. But they did look really cool.
The picture of the girl is one I did back in high school. She was a girl that I liked at the time (then later on dated), but I never gave it to her....and Im actually glad I didnt, because I would no longer have it. The pictures of the cars were done my freshman year of college. I used to watch Overhaulin' a lot and watching Chip Foose create these drawings for show really inspired me, so I tried it out myself using pen and some acrylic paint laying around. They could be better, this was before I had any formal training on shadow and reflections and all that jazz. (Oh, and I believe that if you click on the pic, it will enlarge it)
This was one of my favorite classes that I have taken in college, Intro to Drawing. We used nothing but graphite and charcoal. I love making charcoal drawings. In the first drawing, we had to draw something with texture, so I crumpled up a picture of Jesus, ripped the edges, flattened it back out, and drew what I saw. The next two were interesting to do, we had to cover the whole sheet of paper in charcoal, make it completely black, then use an eraser to make the highlights. I think that it is actually easier than drawing with charcoal. The middle picture is my face. We used a photocopy machine, put our faces up to it, printed, then recreated our print. The third is a vase on a vase stand. (not sure why this is underlined)
These pictures are from the very first art class I took in college. Intro to Design I think? It was fun to create these random pictures.
This is a fruit holder that I had to design and make in one of my ID classes. This was such a pain-in-the-butt project. It was called the Joinery project, and we had to make 3 or more equal pieces that connect together, without glue, to make a fruit holder. It was tough just to come up with an idea, let alone make it. I basically accidentally stumbled upon this design, just started putting pieces together and this is what I got.
This is a stool. Its made out of sheet metal and steel rods. Very sharp sheet metal. I cut myself several times making this one. This stool also took me forever to design, I probably drew a hundred different designs before I finished with this one. I was trying to make the whole thing out of one piece of sheet metal, and the design could be done that way, but my piece of sheet metal was about 2 inches too narrow.
Ok, you could call me a cheater for these drawings. I was looking at other peoples sketches when I drew these. I was just trying to get an idea of using different techniques of sketching, trying to figure out how they do it. So they arent really originals. But they look so good!!
These are some sketches for the Opus Design Competition. We had to come up with an inovative design for sunglasses. But we couldnt just design a pair of sunglasses, they had to have other functions as well. Retarded.....I know. Why cant they just serve one function......to keep the sun out of my freakin eyes. I ended up designing a pair that had little wipers on them in case it rained or someone spit on you or something. But they did look really cool.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
I Just Dont Understand
So I was listening to a song on my ipod the other day, actually it was while I was driving home from Purdue. The song was entitled The Letter by the band Acceptance, and there is a line in the chorus that says "..and its bringing us together.....forever." I started thinking about the word forever, and I just couldnt wrap my mind around it! Forever. That means infinate. That, my friend, I imagine, is a very long time. But think about this: infinate means that there is no beginning or end. Its just....infinate, it goes on and on and on. Our lives will go on and on and on. What does that look like? I think that the reason I cant wrap my mind around this idea of no beginning or end is because everything in our lives has a beginning and an end. We are born (the beginning), then life ends (.....the end, of course). We start a job....then we quit or retire. We start a project...then finish it. Everything has a starting and stopping point. But, according to God, our lives will go on forever with Him...if you so choose. I picture THIS life as being a blink compared to what life is ahead of us. That is impossible for me to imagine.
Tonight I went to Greek IV, which is kind of like church for greeks (no, not geeks, greeks). We watched this amazing video of some guy (Giglio was his name) giving a sort of sermon to a group of people at a concert. He started out talking about how big the universe is. He was throwing out all of these figures on the number of galaxies there are, the size of this star compared to this planet compared to this star, how many Earths fit into this star or how many light years away this galaxy is.....basically telling everyone how ginormic the universe is. Now, I love to star gaze, and I often wonder while Im laying there underneath the stars, just why the universe is so big, I lay there trying to understand the distances involved.....and I cant. So I could relate to what he was talking about. Then, just as I felt as tiny and worthless as a flea, he started talking about how special human beings are. How we are simply made from one tiny cell combining with another. Again, he was throwing out figures on how small these cells are, how long and complex a strand of DNA is, how many years it would take to read our 'code' (it was like 96 yrs), just more information about how amazingly complex things are, and how fragile and special we really are. Basically, all of this information made my head want to explode. I was actually feeling a little queezy after hearing all of that information.
But wait, he wasnt done yet. Then he started talking about laminin. Now Im sure you all know what laminin is right? Ok, I didnt know either. Laminin is a protien that holds together every single cell in your body. I suppose without laminin, we would just fall apart. Its our glue. But the interesting thing about laminin is what it looks like. Well, the pictures are posted below. If you want the link to watch the video yourself, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1EAmfOu9lE It is kind of long, there are like 4 parts to it on youtube, but it is absolutely amazing. My summary is no where near as impacting as his message.
I do have a point to all of this though. I think that we arent meant to understand these distances or figures or complexities. If we knew a tenth of what God knows, if we knew a tenth of the truth, our tiny little peanut heads would explode. This summer while I was in Vermont, a group of us went outside during the night and laid in the middle of the dirt road, flat on our backs, and just stared at the stars. Again, as I lay there, I was trying to relate to the distances and size of the universe, and was trying to figure out the truth. So, I asked Jim why he thought God made the universe so big? Hoping to get a clever and complex response, I recieved the simple response,"just to show how big He is." I thought about it for a while, and I think that he is absolutely right. God is bigger than the biggest star in the universe, further than the furthest galaxie, brighter than the brightest light......and yet smaller than the smallest cell in the body. He is......I cant even think of a word to describe Him! Every word I think of will fall short of what Im trying to say. And with all of His hugeness and mightyness, he is still our friend. He still wants us.......just us. Astounding. Watch the video.
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